Time to Flee!

 One week ago, the horrible Harvest Fair began with live 'music' at local bars. For the loud bar near us, this meant a start time of 10:45 pm and an end time of 2:30 am. The following day was fair day itself. Main Street was closed to traffic and vendors set up stalls. We were looking forward to this a couple years ago when we first got to town, thinking we'd see lots of art and craft. No. It was stall after stall of plastic junk. It was difficult to get through the crowd of people. I found it quite unpleasant. We haven't done that again. As usual, there was music playing in the street during this event. Then the bar started blasting the same old loop of recorded music we've heard so often, so the noise polluters were competing with each other. I occupied myself by getting ready to flee the next day.

We knew the weekend would be the worst of the event, so we booked a room in another town to get away from the noise pollution weekend. On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, in addition to the live 'music' at the bar, much activity was planned for Main Street--different musical performers, a parade, a jiving competition, and just general drunken revelry until late. Because horrible harvest fair is a special event, the noise is permitted to extend later into the night. The worst of the schedule was Sunday, when the planned events would go on for 9 or 10 hours. Instead, on Sunday I was sitting outside on a rocking garden bench, listening to the birds singing, feeling the slightly chilly breeze, and looking at flowers whilst drinking tea and reading a book. I'm so grateful I got to experience a weekend of peace and quiet instead of agitation and annoyance. 

As a bonus, we got to spend some time with Sue, who is 16.5 years old--and what a bundle of energy! The way she wags her tail made me laugh every time. 

It was a lovely quiet weekend. We're so glad we avoided the worst of the fair. The noise issue was a lot better this summer. It hasn't been as loud and it hasn't gone on so late--the bar seems to be careful about stopping when legally required to do so. They've also enclosed much of the back area where the noise occurs, so people do seem to stay past closing time, and they may have music playing, but it's barely audible and then only in the kitchen. I can't hear it in the bedroom, so I don't care what they do. Listening to the noise last Wednesday, I was struck by how we used to deal with nights like that all the time last year and how stressful it was. The fact that we're not dealing with that kind of thing on a regular basis is another reason to be thankful. The Harvest Fair is the biggest community event of the year, though, so that's never going to be any better. What's the saying? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? No thanks. I'll just leave instead.

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Liars by Sarah Manguso

 

As the title indicates, this is a book about liars--people lying to other people, each other, and themselves. Early on there is a scene that serves as a metaphor for what's to come when Jane, the narrator, tries to use a marker to hide the fact that her thrift store fur coat is disintegrating. Soon after this, she fills in her 'patchy eyebrows' with a pencil. When Jane, who is a writer, meets John, a self-identified artist and filmmaker, this habit of covering up reality gets more serious. They begin a relationship quickly and it's clear that this is a mistake, especially when they decide to get married. Jane realizes this on some level, but is pretty good at lying to herself and at 'keeping up appearances' with the people she knows. As she says about herself, 'I was a layer cake of abandonment and hurt, and fury, iced with a smile.' (p36) John does his own lying to her and to others. He lies to himself as well, but in a different way than Jane does. He has delusions of grandeur regarding his artwork, which isn't particularly good, mostly, although he seems to think he's a genius. John is lazy and manipulative and seems to fail at everything, leaving Jane to pick up the pieces and cover for him as best she can. Meanwhile, Jane is a successful writer, which John resents. When 'the child' arrives, things get worse and the pressure on Jane builds, particularly when they move back and forth between NY and California a few times while John chases down funding for his ideas. The pressure is always on Jane. John needs someone to blame for his own failings and inadequacies. 'He kept telling me to stop letting it show on my face. To hide how I felt so that no one would know, no one would be able to read the proof of my shame and humiliation, which by then I always felt for John so he never needed to feel it himself.' (p 81)

And so the lies continue throughout the book as things continue to fall apart. It's not quite the case that this is a portrait of a marriage falling apart, but more that the marriage was falling apart before it began because the two people involved were already in crisis before they met. The (unnamed) child both exacerbates the situation and gives Jane someone to be stronger for, even as she sometimes uses him as an excuse to stay in the marriage.

The book is structured in short paragraphs of various lengths and this fits the narrative well. Jane goes back and forth--one minute she has clarity about what is going on and the next she's telling herself that she's so lucky and of course she loves John and they have a happy family. The short paragraphs illustrate this as the reader whipsaws back and forth with Jane's thoughts. The book is extremely well written and I was drawn in from the start, finishing in one sitting because I didn't want to put it down. This book is almost exclusively focused on the devastation of the relationship and Jane's responses to it. There is a lot about how overwhelmed Jane is at what seems to be required of her as John's wife and 'the child's' mother, as well as how she feels she is losing herself in the process, but here and there are sprinkled comments about the next book she is having published, so clearly there was writing time happening, even if it was hard to carve out. This is a painful book to read at times. John was pathetic and thoroughly unlikable. That said, this is an excellent book and I'm glad to have read it. I haven't read any other work by this author, but will now seek it out.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.

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I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues

 My annual summer blues have been pretty intense this year and, as always, I am eagerly looking forward to some good sleep. I need a chilly (or even cold) room and a few blankets. The other morning I was standing at the open kitchen window and felt the hint of a sharp edge to the wind that blew in. It made me smile. Now that we're almost 2 months past solstice, the nights are lengthening. Yesterday was our last post-9 pm sunset of the year. This led to more smiling. I'm starting to feel less glum as we move closer to my happy time of year. As I await the change of season, I continue to do the things that bring me joy in the midst of extreme tiredness and deep blues, relying on books and yarn to lift my spirits. Today I finished a blue project.

All of our socks are handmade by me, some of them made many years ago. Bill needed some new ones as some of his older ones are starting to show lots of wear. Since we have no local yarn shop and sock yarn isn't something I find in charity shops, I went to the website of Springwools in Dublin and emailed him some possibilities. He looked through these and made his selections, deciding on a blue variegated and a dark denim blue. The skein of variegated (which is showing more green in the photo--it's blue IRL) is large enough for a pair of socks with lots left over. The dark denim blue is enough for one sock with some left. I started with the large skein and made a pair. Then I made a pair of fraternal twins using the rest of that and most of the smaller skein. I finished that pair this afternoon.

He likes a plain foot, so that's what I did. 

There's more blue in my future, but first I'm diving into some purple. Last week a friend gifted me two skeins of sock yarn--one in a purple colorway so I can make myself a pair, and one in a dark blue/light blue/light purple colorway so I can make Bill a pair.

I've never used this particular sock yarn before and I'm really looking forward to it. It looks like it's self-patterning, so it's dyed in such a way that as one knits, it creates patterns automatically. It will be fun to watch this happen as I knit.

For any sock knitters out there, here's the sock info:

The blue variegated is King Cole Zig Zag, which comes in 420m skeins. I love this yarn. Great colors. I've used it several times in the past for both knitted and crocheted socks. It's lovely to work with, wears well, and the resulting socks are great. Last autumn, I got a skein in a Christmas colorway, knitted myself a pair of socks and had enough left to crochet another pair, using scrap balls in a plain cream for toes and heels. Highly recommend this yarn.

The dark denim color is Lang Jawoll Sock. It's 210m and comes with a 5g spool of reinforcement yarn. I've never used this yarn before, so I don't know how well it will wear. I did use the reinforcement yarn on the heel flap and turn.

They're just plain top-down socks. I use 2x2 rib on US size 1 needles over 68 stitches for the cuffs, change to US size 0, then do a heel flap, heel turn, gusset to start the foot. I decrease the gusset stitches every other round until I have 72 stitches left and work the foot until the toe decreases. I use a star toe. 

I will probably do the same on the socks I make with my new purple yarn. I sometimes do some sort of pattern on the top of the foot, but in this case, I want to knit plain so I can see how the patterns unfold.

Whatever it is that brings you joy, I hope you get to do a lot of it as this season starts to wind down.

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Does He Understand the Concept?

 It was Bill who pointed it out to me. He looks out the window as he's washing the dishes and he often gets a view of the guy across the river and his droopy drawers. He shared his observations with me and well, there are some things you just can't unsee. Droopy seems not to understand the concept of pants and what their purpose is. He seems to assume that they should be worn under the butt instead of covering it. He apparently feels that this fashion statement is one to be shared with any and all who are in his vicinity. I'm sure I am not alone in wishing he wouldn't, but here we are. We look out of the windows at our own risk. Yesterday, he was on a ladder fairly high above the sidewalk, giving all and sundry a better view. You'd think the breeze blowing across his butt would cause a chill, but he's apparently willing to tough it out. Has anyone ever told him that pants were actually designed to gently cover the rear end, providing warmth, comfort, and protection from stinging insects, biting bugs, splinters, frostbite, etc? We'll never know. Droopy droops and I just look away.😬

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Whoop!

 Got happy mail today! 

It was kind of a surprise--Bill told me the other day that he'd seen a couple of books that he thought I'd like on a used book page on eBay, so he got them and they were on their way. He asked if I wanted to know what they were and I said I did, so he told me. I was (and am) thrilled! I didn't look them up, so the contents were a surprise. He was concerned that I might have already read many of the stories, but as it turns out, there are just a few between both books that I've read before. Not that I would have minded if there had been more. I love, love, love both short story collections and classic mysteries, so there is plenty for me to love here. 

I started the Victorian mysteries shortly after the parcel was opened. The second story was an amusing Wilkie Collins detective story. His Woman in White was mentioned a few times in the Introduction as one of the first detective sensation novels. As luck would have it, I found a like-new copy of that in a charity shop on Friday. The Victorian mystery anthology is divided into themes--detective, crime, international, and American stories. It seems to be quite well done and I am looking forward to reading a story or two each day. It'll be interesting to see if the stories from Spain, Italy, Germany are different in some ways from the British and US ones. I've been reading more and more Victorian literature (and a bit before that) for the past few years for quite a while now, so this will fit right in with that.

I am equally excited about the Christmas anthology, but I will summon up my willpower to hold off on that until later in the year. Reading Christmas mysteries is part of my yearly 'I am so grateful summer is OVER' ritual, so I am thrilled to know that this will be waiting for me when the time comes. It's a nice chunky book so I can stretch out my enjoyment for a while.

What better way to begin the week than welcoming fabulous books into my life?

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Immortality of a Sort?

 This will be me. 

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

 The Minstry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre

ISBN 9781399726344

I don't usually read sci fi, although there are a few exceptions. However, I was intrigued by the description of this book, in which a select group of people are brought from the past to present-day Britain and must learn to inhabit the 21st century. I do love a good culture shock story. This excellent book is far more than that, though, and I am so glad I read it!

The book is told from the perspective of a civil servant, who had been toiling away in the Languages department, but applies for and is hired for a much more secretive and well-paying job in the Ministry, where time travel has been discovered. She will be the 'bridge' to Commander Graham Gore, who had been known as one of those who perished in the Franklin expedition to the Arctic. History says he died in 1847, but now he's learning about life in the 21st century. The bridge is there to monitor him and help him navigate this new world. Even she isn't clear about what the Ministry is about and what the purpose of the project is. This job also makes her think about her own life as an outsider--her mother was a refugee from Cambodia and she grew up with the casual racism that is sadly so common. Just as the 'expats' as they are called (in order to keep away the stigma of the word 'immigrant') must figure out what their place is in a new society, the bridge continues to figure out her place in her own. Her experience also complicates her relationship with Commander Gore at times, but in spite of the fact that this is supposed to be a job, she soon finds herself growing closer to her expat. At the same time, she finds herself uneasy about some of the things that are happening at the Ministry and isn't sure what to do about it. At one point she says, 'Life is a series of slamming doors. We make irrevocable decisions every day. A twelve-second delay, a slip of the tongue, and suddenly your life is on a new road.' (p 160)

As you'd expect, there is a lot in this book about belonging and feeling misplaced. For the bridge, this is a generational thing--there is a very moving short scene in which she remembers a trip to her mother's home place in Cambodia and how her mother's accent was ridiculed. She clearly didn't fit in there, but she never quite fit in in Britain, either. The bridge's sister writes about her experiences with racism, while the bridge tries to fit in and pass as white. In similar ways, the expats have different strategies for navigating their current world.

I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just say that the last 100 pages or so are a wild ride. I thought I knew where the book was going. I was wrong. This is a really fine book, beautifully written, and a real page-turner. I was annoyed every time I had to put it down and couldn't wait to get back to it. I've been thinking about it ever since I finished it and I think it will stay with me for a long time. Fantastic read!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.

Update--an article about the author appeared in The Guardian and you can read it here

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